"These polls seem to be not so much within the margin of error as the margin of disaster," he told reporters in Canberra.

"The Labor MPs I speak to are pretty despondent at the moment, and I think they're just hoping it'll tighten before election day."

Labor senator Doug Cameron said the party's leadership team repeatedly had told MPs a J-curve would follow major policy announcements, with public sentiment dropping before growing to support the government.

"That J-curve hasn't come, so we have to be realistic," he told reporters.

"There's been policies not sold as well as they should have been. There's policies that have not been defended as well as they should have."

Senator Cameron said it was of great concern to hear colleagues talking as though the election had been lost already.

"We need to always go into the election with the view that we're going to win," he said.

Independent MP Tony Windsor says Labor has taken a bit of a hit after last week's furore over electoral funding.

"The government was always going to take a bigger hit on that sort of thing," he told reporters in Canberra.

Mr Windsor said support for independents remained significantly higher than at the 2010 election, reflecting the electorate's view of the major parties.

The primary vote for "others" was 12 per cent in the latest Newspoll, nearly double the 6.6 per cent recorded at the election.

"There has been disillusionment and there has been for some time with the major parties," Mr Windsor said.

Liberal MP Jamie Briggs insisted the coalition would start as underdogs despite its big lead over Labor.

His colleague Simon Birmingham denied the coalition was becoming complacent about an election victory.

"Far from it. We know that no election can be taken for granted," he told reporters, adding the Liberal Party had only succeeded in winning an election from opposition three times.

"We know people want a change, but we also know we need to earn their votes and earn their trust, and in the next 101 days that's all we'll be doing."

Labor frontbencher Yvette D'Ath insisted Prime Minister Julia Gillard had the full support of caucus, saying MPs had made the right decision to reject the return of Kevin Rudd.

"That issue has been put to bed," she told reporters.

Australian Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt said his party was confident it could retain control of the Senate.

"The people need to understand there is a very real prospect that Tony Abbott could have total control of the parliament," he told reporters.

"The way in which they can take out some insurance is by voting Greens."